


Fire And Faith

by icarus_chained



Category: Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Genre: Character Study, Ficlet Collection, Gen, Microfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-22
Updated: 2012-05-22
Packaged: 2017-11-05 20:30:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/410700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icarus_chained/pseuds/icarus_chained
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A set of five microfics, written for prompts. Turned into a small character study of John, for some reason. Heh.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fire And Faith

**Faith:**

There were many kinds of faith in this world, John had always thought: faith in some higher power, faith in some deeper meaning, faith in fellow man, faith in one's own will. For him, it had always been the latter, above all. Harry ... believed in people. And sometimes, John wondered which of them was more destined to be betrayed.

**Fire:**

In his younger, fiercer days, young and angry, John had had a trick. Lighter, skin, an utter lack of expression. He had favoured knives, but there had been a certain other thrill, in fire, and the defiance thereof. He did wonder, sometimes, looking at Harry, if he didn't have that trick still.

**Flight:**

From such as Dresden, one did not win cooperation, _loyalty_ , by force, nor by will. But by being the lesser of all evils, the last port in the storm, the harbour at the end of their flight. John would wonder that no-one else seemed to properly realise this, but then ... If they had, he would have had to take _steps_ , so perhaps it was just as well.

**Fear:**

Fear, John had found, was much like fire. The greatest of weapons, the most useful of tools, the thing at the hearth that kept a man alive. And, too, the most dangerous thing a man could know, if he treated it badly. Fear was not to be feared, not itself. But respected, in yourself or others, yes. That, always.

**Failure:**

There were those amongst his people who looked at Dresden's defiance, his refusal, and called it John's failure. John, seeing the strength of the man, the wary respect, the ruins of those who had forced him before ... silently made notes, that those people would not see command positions. A lack of understanding of that magnitude ... could well be terminal.


End file.
